It is known in vehicles, particularly in the rear door window, to provide a window shade that the occupant may deploy to overlie the inside of the window panel. The window shade may be used to limit the intrusion of the sun into the vehicle or to provide privacy for the vehicle occupant. Such window shades are fashioned of a flexible material such as cloth, vinyl or plastic that is either opaque or translucent. A storage roller is mounted on the vehicle door adjacent the lower edge of the window opening. The storage roller is preferably concealed beneath a trim panel of the vehicle and the window shade can be deployed by lifting the top edge of the window shade upwardly as permitted by unrolling of the flexible window shade material from the storage roller. The window shade is retained in its raised position by having a hook or hooks mounted on the top edge of the window shade for engagement into a mating hook retainer or hook retainers provided at the top of the window opening.
In order to facilitate the raising of the window shade by the occupant, a handle is fixedly attached to the top edge of the window shade and projects towards the seated occupant to be gripped by the occupant. The handle also serves as a stop to limit the lowering movement of the window shade by having the handle engage with the trim panel at the bottom of the window opening.